Quote Originally Posted by Leon
There was a rumour back then that Snijers was practicing the stages for a whole week before the rally but I don´t know if this is true. Anyone?
Back then all top drivers did that (from what I heard), I believe there were no real restrictions to recce back then... Before Ypres the "training" began weeks before the event, in the GroupB-era, drivers who drove a Gr.B in competition also had a similar Gr.B for recce/training, for example Snijers had a 037 for training, and some Italian driver drove that car during the rallies (even in official review-videos from Ypres and from the Belgian championship they mentioned it like that). I'm too young to have experienced those times, but it happens now and then that I hear stories about that "training" before the Ypres rally years ago, people were waiting hours to see some cars passing by, on competition-speed. Spectators blocked the roads so drivers should not be worried about other traffic, etc... Times have changed, I'm sure there still is some illegal recce in all events (you can't ever stop it completely), but nothing like those "training weeks" that happened 20-30 years ago.